Sparring
by doconnor
Summary: Ahsoka works on lightsaber training with Anakin, but can he keep his demons in check?


Ahsoka was alone in the cruiser's small gym, which was usually used by the human crew (Clones didn't have to exercise to maintain their physic). Three remotes hovered around her spitting out their charges at a modest rate of one per second. She was just listening to the hum of her lightsaber move through the air to block each one, allowing the Force to almost completely control her movements, far more so then normal in training or battle.

For her this was a form of meditation. With the hum of her lightsaber as her mantra she let go of the rest of her senses letting the Force flow though her without interruption.

She felt the smoothness of the Force around her, only interrupted by the flutter of danger from the remotes and the warm glow of her lightsaber brushing them away.

Then she felt a slight bend in the Force behind her. She disengaged the lightsaber and the remotes automatically went into standby. She turned and said, "Hello, Master."

She looked up at his familiar face. He grimaced. "Have you been training?"

"Well..." She had been excused from a lot of training because of all the missions they had been on lately. This was the first break they had had in a while and she was looking forward to relaxing a lot more the training.

Anakin raise his hand, drew a remote into it and glanced at its settings. He looked at her with disappointment.

"With all the fighting we've been doing, I thought we'd take a break from training." Ahsoka knew this line of argument wasn't going anywhere.

Anakin shook his head. He pulled out a glowing tablet and handed it to Ahsoka. "Seventeen Padawans have died in the last month."

Ahsoka scanned the list. She recognized several names from her days at the temple. She felt crestfallen, thinking back to all the friends she had lost in the war.

She knew Jedi weren't supposed to have such attachments and felt relief to hear her Master's lightsaber power up. She refocused on the moment.

She adjusted the settings and turned hers on. They both passed their lightsabers through a nearby table proving that they where on the minimum setting used for training and would safely pass though anything, except another lightsaber.

They started with a simple exercise of taking three steps in one direction and three steps in the other, with each step alternating between crossing swords high and low.

After a couple of rounds Anakin started adding extra moves, but Ahsoka could easily sense and anticipate them. It seemed to her that her master was being easy on her. It was so routine that her thoughts started drifting to the names on the list. Before she knew it she felt a warn tingling in her forearm. She looked down to see that Anakin's lightsaber had just passed though it.

She looked up as he turned off his lightsaber. He said, "Your feelings are understandable." She was surprised at his empathy. "But your grief will not bring them back. If you linger on it, you may spiral out of control and fail yourself, and those around you. Focus on the now, my Padawan."

Ahsoka knew he was referring to the Dark Side. Like all Jedi she had felt it's draw. She had push it back several times before, each time hoping it would be the last temptation. Looking at Anakin's eyes, she realized the temptation would always be there and she would have to constantly struggle against it.

"Yes, Master." is all she needed to say.

They resumed sparring, quickly moving from the predicable pattern to full battling. Up, up, down, left, right, right. Ahsoka felt he was not pressuring her too hard, so she shifted to more offence then defense. Anakin quickly took advantage and she felt her throat tighten his as the lightsaber passed through it. She froze.

Anakin looked down at her. "In the field, who would you expect to be having a lightsaber dual with?"

"Um, General Grievous or Ventress," Ahsoka said pensively.

"What are the chances you'd be able defeat them?"

"None, Master." She looked down and noticed that her lightsaber was half way through Anakin's leg.

Anakin harrumphed and knocked her lightsaber away with his.

They resumed sparring going directly to full intensity. Ahsoka focused strictly on defense. Up, down, down, duck, spin, step back, hold, lean in. She felt the Force guiding her saber, she could feel where he was going to strike seconds in advanced. She saw opportunities to go on the attack appear and disappear. She knew if she took those opportunities he would know and be able to defend himself and take the opportunity to attack.

Anakin stepped up the pace. She felt his full physical strength go into his attacks greatly enhanced by the Force. She used all her strength and speed to defend. Their Force auras clashed as their sabers clashed. It took all her concentration to both hold out off the attacks and anticipate the next one. The sound of the light sabers wiped past one ear, then the other.

Ahsoka felt the speed increase again. She knew she wouldn't be able to keep up. One of her parries slipped and she felt the light saber pass through her upper body.

She stuttered at her failure, but Anakin didn't say anything and just held his light saber at the ready.

She took a deep breath and suddenly thought of her mother. She had talked to her a few days ago. The memories of all the nice things her mother had done in the past flooded over her.

With renewed confidence she raised her lightsaber and they continued sparring. The pace quickly rose to the level that she couldn't keep up with before but she held on this time. With each move she felt her confidence grow and felt her mother's pride increase. She felt her speed and confidence grow to new heights.

Soon she noticed an opportunity to attack and took it without hesitation. Her light saber went right through Anakin's hip. She pumped her fist in celebration. "Got you, Skyguy."

Anakin turned off his lightsaber and lowered his head. "What where you thinking about, just then."

Ahsoka was suddenly nervous. "I was thinking of my mother." She knew what was coming.

Anakin put his hand on her shoulder. "Do not be ashamed of your feelings, Snips. The connection between a mother and her daughter is powerful, but you must set it aside. There are trillions of beings in the Galaxy. It is for them that we fight. To focus on one, even your mother, leads the selfishness and that leads to..."

She interrupted, "I know, I know."

"It leads to the Dark Side. We should not shy away from that fact." Anakin started raising his voice, "You must never allow yourself to follow that path. The consequences are... unthinkable."

Ahsoka saw an opportunity to ask Anakin something she had always wanted. to know. "They say you didn't start your training until you where nine. After spending so long with your mother it must have been hard to leave her."

Anakin looked away. Ahsoka felt a cold wind blow through the Force. He turned on his light saber. "My mother died."

Ahsoka realized she had said something inappropriate. It wasn't the first time this had happened. It seemed like her master had more secrets then other Jedi. She stuttered, "I didn't know... I'm sorry, Master."

He started at her so fast she had to ignite her saber and block his attack in one move. He was immediately going at full speed. Ahsoka stayed focused on a half second into the future to foresee her master's attacks and let the force guide her defense.

Ahsoka felt him pressuring at her from above, using his height to his advantage. She leaped and somersaulted over him, trading several swipes as she did. Anakin turned to keep facing her as she leaped.

Up, up, down, step back, left, up, left, step back. Ahsoka leaped again, but this time Anakin used the Force to push her back down. She landed unsteadily on her feet. Before she could react he was pressing down on her with his light saber. She was able to hold him off, but something felt different about how the Force was pushing against her.

Unable to steady herself, she felt her legs beginning to fail. Instead of just collapsing she, kicked her foot at Anakin's shin. She fell to the ground, but the kick distracted him enough so she could roll out of the way and stand back up.

Anakin turned and resumed his attacks. Up, up, left, down, up, duck, spin, left, jump. Ahsoka looked up at his face and his eyes seemed distant and unfocused. His swings where even faster and more powerful then before, but they where reckless and sloppy. She found she could no longer reliably foresee them. She recognized the fighting style as similar to Ventress.

Up, up, left, push, duck, spin, right, down. Anakin held out his hand and a barbell flew off a rack towards Ahsoka. She held up her lightsaber to cut it in half, forgetting that it was set to minimum power. The barbell passed right through it and hit her in the cheek, cutting it. Several more barbells leapt out, but she managed to dodge them.

Ahsoka knew she had to hold her own against Anakin. Not for her sake, but for his. She had felt that he might be slipping towards the Dark Side before, but wasn't certain. Now that she was experiencing it first hand she knew. She had to show him the Dark Side wasn't stronger and they could beat it together.

Left, up, down, up, step back. Ahsoka leapt up on a table so she would have the height advantage. Down, left, right, spin. She forced him to step back, but because she was on the table she couldn't take advantage of it.

She used her foot to flick a towel at him and with the Force she was able to get it to cover his face. Despite being unable to see, Anakin resumed attacking without hesitation. Up, left, up, down. He sliced with his lightsaber as he spun. Ahsoka managed to defect it, but the towel flew off.

When Anakin was back facing Ahsoka, she saw that his face seemed filled with shame and fear. Ahsoka refocused. Down, up, left, right, up, down, down, spin. Anakin's hand reached out and the two front legs flew out from under the table. Because she was spinning, she couldn't control how she fell and ended up with the table flipped over on top of her.

Even though she could not see, she knew the next attack was coming. Using the Force to guide her she put her lightsaber through the table above her and blocked two swings. Sensing as opportunity she stayed under the table and blocked two more. At just the right moment she flipped the table so one of the remaining legs hit Anakin's hip, knocking him to the ground.

Ahsoka hurried around the table, and switch to her reverse grip. Anakin was ready when she got there and blocked each of her swipes, but was unable to stand up.

Anakin held off Ahsoka's pushing against his lightsaber with one hand and with the other reached for one of the broken table legs. He grabbed it, swung at Ahsoka through both lightsaber beams hitting her elbow and causing her stumble backwards, almost losing her lightsaber.

Anakin was able to get back up and Ahsoka switch back to standard grip. They started dueling again. Up, left, left, down, right, up.

Going even faster, Ahsoka felt more focused then ever before. The effort was so great she began using the Force to push air in and out of her lungs to maximize their capacity.

Suddenly a voice called out, "What are you two doing?"

They both froze in mid strike, and looked over to Obiwan. He was standing in the door with a bell bar impaled in the wall next to him. Both of them said nothing, but where breathing heavily.

Eventually Ahsoka said through a forced smile, "Just sparring."

_End theme_

_Star Wars created by: George Lucas_

* * *

I wanted to write this for a few reasons.

First I wanted to do a super cool lightsaber fight.

Second, I wanted to present my thoughts on how Jedi use the Force to fight. I believe that is their ability to see into the future is key to their abilities.

Third, while there are hints, in CGI series they haven't delved into the Dark Side of Anakin as much as they could have.

I've already got another Clone Wars story written called _Ahsoka's Destiny_, but since it's more an a dramatic ending, I might hold off until after I've put up another I've just started called, _The Force and the Art of Astro Droid Maintenance_.

Written on a Palm Treo 700P


End file.
